Widespread Accusations of Ecocide: Israeli Military Blamed for Scorching South Lebanon
BEIRUT, LEBANON – Firefighters and residents across south Lebanon are leveling severe accusations against the Israeli military, alleging their deliberate actions are igniting devastating wildfires that are consuming vast swathes of the region’s forested and agricultural lands. Environmental organizations are calling these incidents part of a “longstanding Israeli practice” to target Lebanon’s natural environment, an assertion echoed by firsthand accounts and visual evidence.
The latest incidents paint a grim picture. On Tuesday, Israeli military forces reportedly dropped flares in a wooded area outside Khiam, southern Lebanon, directly sparking blazes. Hussein Fakih, head of the civil defense in the Nabatieh region, recounted how firefighters attempting to tackle these flames were forced to retreat after a drone strike landed perilously close. “Most of our missions are now related to fires,” Fakih stated, estimating that “around 30-40% of the land has been affected by fires” in areas near the frontline.
These fires are not isolated events. According to first responders and corroborating video evidence, the Israeli military has been responsible for fires across south Lebanon, particularly impacting olive groves and agricultural land, in the nearly two months since the June 17 ceasefire that largely halted hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. Despite numerous requests for comment on these wildfire incidents, the Israeli military has remained silent.
“They started doing this right after the ceasefire, and there have been incendiary bombs every day,” Fakih explained, detailing the tactics. “Small drones come out and drop incendiary materials, [white] phosphorus shells are fired at the woodlands, in addition to illumination flares that they drop during the daytime so the vegetation catches fire.”
Similar accounts of blazes started by Israeli munitions and drones in dry scrub and woodlands have emerged from other areas of south Lebanon. Friday witnessed significant wildfires in two heavily forested areas: Kfarchouba, near the border, and between Jezzine and the western Bekaa valley. Samir Hardan, the civil defense station chief for the area, reported that a drone-dropped munition ignited a fire near Kfarchouba on Friday afternoon. After an arduous overnight battle to extinguish it, a second drone initiated another fire on Sunday.
Compounding the crisis, firefighters’ efforts are often hampered by logistical complexities. Their movements require coordination with the Lebanese army, which then relays requests to a “deconfliction” group that includes the Israeli military. This bureaucratic hurdle reportedly resulted in permission to fight fires at only two specific locations, leaving other raging blazes unattended.
Environmental groups, alongside experts, are raising the alarm, characterizing these fires as part of a systematic assault on Lebanon’s natural environment, threatening its vital woodlands and the biodiversity they sustain. Hisham Younes, founder of the Lebanese conservation organization Green Southerners, described the Israeli actions as “ecocide.”
“These are long-established woodlands, dominated by productive stone pine alongside oak. They perform critical functions. The wider area is also an important passage and resting ground for migratory birds,” Younes emphasized. He further elaborated, “It is not about any single fire or attack, but a pattern of destruction that progressively erodes the ability of ecosystems to function, regenerate and sustain life. When those cascading effects also undermine livelihoods and people’s ability to return to and remain on their land, environmental destruction becomes inseparable from the wider transformation of the territory itself.”
Since hostilities commenced on October 8, 2023, following Hezbollah’s rocket attacks in solidarity with the Hamas-led assault, Israel has consistently targeted Lebanon’s woodlands. The Israeli military has previously justified such actions by claiming Hezbollah utilizes these forested areas for cover and tunnel construction.
This pattern of environmental devastation is not new. Ecologists and human rights groups have repeatedly highlighted the broader impacts on civilian populations. In the summer of 2024, Israeli troops were documented using trebuchets – medieval catapults – to hurl flaming debris across its border with Lebanon. The Lebanese army also published images of Israeli drones equipped with hoses designed to douse forests with flammable materials. In February, health and environmental experts raised concerns when Israeli planes allegedly dropped herbicides linked to cancer on farms in south Lebanon.
Beyond the environmental and health ramifications, residents of south Lebanon are mourning the profound loss of green spaces that hold deep sentimental value. On August 1, displaced residents of the border village of Yaroun discovered their olive and fruit groves, along with their homes, had been torched by occupying Israeli troops. People in nearby Christian towns, Rmeich and Aïn Ebel, which have largely been spared depopulation by the Israeli military, also shared images of the fires.
Hafez Ghasham, the mayor of Yaroun, recounted the destruction: “They had already bulldozed the whole village. Then they set fire to the trees. What remained in this particular area were the olive trees – large groves, with very old olive trees. They started there, then the fire spread along the outskirts of the village.” Residents of Yaroun, already displaced, had pooled resources to acquire expensive satellite imagery to monitor their village after 880 of its 900 houses were bulldozed by the Israeli military in previous months.
“Many of these trees, most of them, in fact, were inherited from our grandparents and parents. They have enormous sentimental value. The trees were also an important source of income for the people of the village,” Ghasham lamented. “They are trying to make the land uninhabitable. They are erasing our entire history, our entire culture, all our memories. Maybe the idea is that after some time, it will look as though nobody had ever lived here.”
